Archive for the ‘Rants’ Category

I decided that I have way too much stuff out there on the server so I started going through some of it. I came across something I wrote on November 9, 2006. It was obviously a post I wrote for a blog, but I did not have one then. So I must have written it as a guest post for Mark’s blog (which, at the time, was entirely different than what it is now). I must have a gift for prognostication as most of what I put in there has come true. In this case, it has not been a good thing.

So, for your reading pleasure, here’s what I wrote more than 5 years ago, right after a mid-term election.

I realize that I have not posted here in a long time. I’ve just been way too busy. There just does not seem to be that much time any more to get everything done. Ah, the benefits of working.

However, I feel the need to post a couple of comments about the past election.

1) Republicans deserved to lose, mainly because they have not acted like the conservatives they claimed to be. I do not feel that there are many conservatives left, so getting people elected to congress who are going to be worth it is difficult at best.

2) Democrats who won over incumbent Republicans did so mostly by claiming they are the conservatives. I don’t believe them.

3) Now that both houses of congress are under liberal control (can’t get much worse than Pelosi and Reid), hang on to your pocketbooks. If you thought that past few years of spendaholics was bad, just you wait.

4) Bush needs to use his veto pen many, many times over the next two years. If he goes along with tons of new congressional spending there will be a liberal in the White House in 2 years. People are sick of massive government spending.

5) If we have a liberal congress and president in 2 years, with the current leadership or similar in place, welcome back to the Carter years. We will have rising inflation, rising unemployment, rising interest rates, PLUS the constant threat of terrorism within our borders, increasing crime like you wouldn’t believe, and God-fearing Christians will be increasingly persecuted for standing up for their beliefs. Some of this will be muted by individual state laws, but the federal agenda will promote it.

6) If, on the other hand, the now powerful liberals act like the liberals we have come to know and love, and fulfill the agenda they have said they wanted, which is to raise taxes, impeach Bush, investigate everything they can, leave Iraq hanging in the breeze, and generally ruin every good thing that has happened the past several years, and if Bush will play conservative and do everything he can to keep all of it from happening, there is a good chance that in 2 years, sanity can prevail.

7) In the mean time, do things that will keep the bad effects of government to a minimum. Pay off your credit cards. Put some money aside. Store some food. Purchase ammunition. Do your job well so you are a valued employee, not a liability. In short, spend the next couple of years getting your position in life into as good of a place as you can, because the storm is likely coming.

Now, you might think from some of this that I am somewhat depressed. Not even. I think that we have the opportunity to get our individual ducks in a row in spite of what our national leadership is doing. Anything that congress does now will take some time to have an effect. The Bush tax cuts have taken several years to make the national economy what it is now. It will take some time for detrimental things to have the opposite effect. All I am saying is take advantage of the current times to put yourself in a good position and pray mightily that it doesn’t change.

Since writing this, items 3, 4 and 5 have pretty much happened as written, with the bonus of high energy prices thrown in. And if you don’t think Christians aren’t being persecuted, witness the political battles over abortion and so-called birth control rights.

Keep in mind that I wrote this before I ever heard of the current pResident. I see him as the destroyer of all that is good and right.

And #7 applies now more than ever. I do not think the storm has hit yet. Just wait until the race wars start.

Well, today was the day I had enough. After nearly 7 years I fired Sprint. In the middle of a contract period even.

We have had 4 phone lines with them. 3 of them were these spiffy HTC Evo Shift Android phones. They were sure promoted as these fantastic things, upgrade price of only $200 each when we got them. And they were nice for a while. Mine has seemed to hold up well for quite a while. Karen and Crystal had to have theirs replaced last December because within 2 weeks, the screens quit working, and they started doing stupid things. So they got replacements, what looked like nice new ones. Naturally, they are refurbished. A month or so later, Crystal’s quit working. She took it in, can’t fix it, have to get another one. 11 days later, no phone yet…it’s on backorder. This week, Karen’s went stupid to the point where it would not even turn 0n. (At least Crystal’s will let her make a phone call, but the touchscreen does not work at all.) She took it in. Can’t fix it, have to replace it. Oh, it’s on backorder, don’t know when it will come in.

Getting the picture? Two of four phone lines nearly unusable because the phones do not work.

So, I call Sprint. They can’t won’t do anything. I go to the store. They can’t won’t do anything, but they will give me the number for customer retention. I spent an hour on the phone with “Customer Retention” and made it to tier 4. They can’t won’t do anything. I wanted to have them change the two offending phones to a different phone. They would not do ANYTHING in regards to price or swap, or refund, or even credit for not being able to use the phone lines because the phones would not work. Oh, and yes the replacements on backorder and they don’t know when they are going to get them.

Hello T-Mobile! 4 new phones later, we have 3 Samsung Galaxys and a Samsung Gravity for Ashley. Unlimited everything for me and Karen. 500 minutes each, lots of data and unlimited text for Crystal and Ashley. Even including the phone financing the way they do it, we will be paying less per month, and when the phones are paid off, we will have better service for nearly half of what Sprint was charging. And I am going to fight Sprint on the early termination fees. I have had issues with them before about a variety of things, and this was the final straw.

Not quite how I planned on spending the day, but I think it turned out all right.

My basic thoughts are that clothing is overpriced. Big time. I don’t hardly buy clothes if it isn’t on a clearance rack or a very good sale. Well, today I found a couple of dress shirts on the clearance rack, paid $12 each for them, which is not too bad. However, the normal price is $40 each.

They were all nicely pinned and packaged up. It took me about 5 minutes and a pair of scissors to undo the packing. And here is everything that was in that shirt.

Amazing, isn't it!

Yup, cardboard, plastic, stickers, tags and pins. Not a lot of money in parts, but someone had to engineer those pieces, and they likely were not all put into the shirt by machine. By the time it is all made, packed, shipped, etc, the price tag is $40. Would have been $25 without all of this stuff to make it so nice to look at on the shelf. Of course, all of this stuff has no value or use to me, so in the trash it goes.

And if it was $25 instead of $40, at 70% off it would have been $4.50 less on clearance!

This has been a rant in process for a while, mainly because I didn’t really want to post something so negative, but things have finally come to a head and I need to get it off my chest.

I am talking about the idiots of life who seem to be around in abundance. If the idiocy was limited to the insides of their residences I would be fine with it, but these are the ones who put it on display in public and they don’t give a rip how it affects anyone else.

For example, the creepers.

These are the ones who, when they are at a red light in the turn lane, creep forward a bit at a time until the back bumper is in the pedestrian crosswalk. Not only a violation of the law, they have now put their vehicle off of the sensor that tells the controller to trigger the turn light. Unless the car behind them scoots up to where they should have been the turn light gets missed. I have had this happen to me any number of times. Scooting forward does not make the light change any faster.

Then there are the pushers.

These are the idiot pedestrians who push the button for the crosswalk multiple times while they wait…it only needs to be done once, maybe twice. Pushing the button 85 or 90 times does not make the light change any faster.

Some pedestrians start crossing before its safe and after they push the thing lots of times. I have watched lots of them nearly get hit because they decided to go and paid no attention to the cars that have the turn light. You know, the creepers who happened to get the light.

The bike riders.

These are the bicyclers who think they own the road. Lots of car and bike accidents happen in Boise because bikers just go through the red lights, dart out from between parked cars, make a sudden turn in front of you, etc. Almost got a couple myself and not because I wasn’t paying attention. The fact that I do pay attention is what saved their butts from being a spot of grease and scrap iron on the pavement. Last time I checked, bikers are expected to follow the same traffic laws that motorists are. Why are they not getting traffic tickets? Those fines should be double for stupidity.

Next up are parking lots.

Parking lots are idiot zones. Waiting for 5 minutes for someone to back out of a spot is rude and unnecessary. The rest of us would like to park too, in a spot, not behind your sorry butt while you wait. I have been stuck behind lots of these folks when there are empty places just 5 down from where they want to go. Good Lord people, are you that lazy? You are still going to push the cart through the store! What’s another 50 feet?

In any other parking lot you get the folks who walk down the middle of the row so you can’t get around them. And they are not in any hurry at all to get out of the way. Driving through the Kohl’s parking lot yesterday, here’s this couple with a 3 year old kid just walking down the middle of the driveway, hand in hand, taking up nearly the whole width of it. Really? Move to the side and let traffic pass! Have a little courtesy and sense of safety for Pete’s sake! Nope. They didn’t move out of the way until they got to their vehicle, 28 spaces down from the front. Yes, I counted.

The honkers…

We have the usual bevy of red light runners here. Red light is merely a suggestion for the first 10 seconds or 3 cars, whichever comes first. Therefore, I don’t move when the light turns green until I have looked everywhere to make sure everyone else is stopped. I have had people hit the horn a half second after a light change because I have not moved yet because of traffic that is still running the red light. Idiots!

It’s no wonder that there are road rage problems. It’s all the idiots taking out their frustration on the other idiots! I feel a little better, at least until I come across the next idiot.